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The other thing that is not talked about is how many of these perp(s) had violent crimes that they have plead down. Murder plead to manslaughter. Felony assaults plead to misdemeanors. Rapes plead down to sexual misconducts. Auto theft plead down to possession of stolen property. Burglaries plead down to tresspassing.

If you're in prison you've been convicted of a felony and not a misdemeanor...for the most part.

Why we as a country ever moved away from institutionalizing those that are a threat to our society is beyond me.
How many nut jobs are walking the streets? You have to constantly have eyes in the back of your head.
Time to reconstruct mental institutions...................

Beginning in the 50ís, states began to close institutions because they had become political embarrassments and a drain on state resources.

Most violent crimes are a result of choice, not insanity, not medications, not single mothers, not bad parenting, not violent video games, not bad education, not bad food, not poverty, and all the other excuses.

The psychiatric field decided in the 80s that it would be better to try to allow these people to live on their own and control their conditions with medication. A well-intentioned attempt, but a complete failure, resulting in the massive homelessness and many crime issues we have seen since then.

We need to, as a nation, focus on mental health before all else, which would help with all other social ills we see now. Unfortunately, many people need to be locked up in institutions for their own good and the good of all of us.

Again, states began to close institutions in the 50ís because they had become political embarrassments and a drain on state resources.

Itís cheaper to treat people on an outpatient basis than inpatient. Symptoms can be mitigated with medications.

Mental illness is a huge spectrum and most are far more likely to be victims of violent crimes than perpetrators.

No one can be forced to take medication.

Seriously mentally ill people often do not perceive their illness. They donít seek treatment. And most donít trend violent.

The other thing that is not talked about is how many of these perp(s) had violent crimes that they have plead down. Murder plead to manslaughter. Felony assaults plead to misdemeanors. Rapes plead down to sexual misconducts. Auto theft plead down to possession of stolen property. Burglaries plead down to tresspassing.

I am happy to see I am not the only one who had both hindsight
and foresight to see what's coming if nothing is done about this.

One can only go so far as to blame the drinking water!

The old ď do somethingĒ thing.

What objective criteria should be used to determine who should be locked up in a mental institution?

While most of us refer to the El Paso shooter as some variation of whack job, there was nothing particularly whacky about his crime. He planned it. He acquired the tools. He chose his target. He did not expect to survive. He drove 10 hours to his target. He cut/ pasted a manifesto and anonymously posted it and his motive to 8 Chan minutes before executing his plan. And then he executed.

What objective criteria should be used to determine who should be locked up?

Many people who are in prison are mentally ill and we are using prisons as psychiatric facilities. We are perfectly fine deciding who should be imprisoned, so we should find some room to decide who should be put into facilities to receive professional treatment.

There are norms of society and norms of sanity, from which we can judge such things. Not sure why you're being so hysterical on here and so combative to everyone.

You know what's interesting, we see other countries arresting corrupt politicians all the time. How many times has Peru arrested their presidents for corruption? In the USA, they never seem to go to prison, and will just quietly resign and live the rest of their lives in luxury if it is known that they did break the law.

Many people who are in prison are mentally ill and we are using prisons as psychiatric facilities. We are perfectly fine deciding who should be imprisoned, so we should find some room to decide who should be put into facilities to receive professional treatment.

There are norms of society and norms of sanity, from which we can judge such things. Not sure why you're being so hysterical on here and so combative to everyone.

There are hundreds of classifications of forms of mental illness including the most common, depression and anxiety. Most people do not commit violent crimes. Rarely do any of these conditions result in adjudication as mentally defective. Treatment primarily consists of medication and maybe a dash of group therapy. Medications are commonly used to reduce symptoms. No one can be forced to take medication unless they are a risk to themselves or others and even then....

Most who are incarcerated made decisions to commit crimes. That the convicted criminal might be depressed, or anxious or bipolar or OCD, etc is besides the point because most mentally donít commit violent crimes.

Some counties in some states operate very limited lock down behavior health institutions as an alternative to prison. They tend to focus on non- violent convicts. The goal is to teach coping mechanisms and work with patient prisoners to make better choices in spite of their illness. The cost of these very limited facilities is greater than a state prison.

Reasonable to assume a significant percentage of those incarcerated have displayed or been diagnosed with one or more mental illness disorders. Wonder how most residents in Alaska would feel about eliminating the annual financial dividend and the imposition of a state income tax, necessary to fund Behavior Health alternatives to prison.

What sort of funding and controls would be necessary to avoid these institutions from turning into the hell holes that most state institutions were before closing?

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